Pell to join Muslim poll panel

Published: 26 February 2007

Sydney's Cardinal George Pell will this weekend join a "deliberative
poll" discussion panel that will debate whether Muslims and non-Muslims
can successfully live together.

The Australian
reports that the deliberative poll to be held in Canberra will be based
on a representative sample of about 350 non-Muslim Australians,
together with 50 Muslims, who will debate whether, and how, they can
live together successfully.

The 350 people are part of a group of 1,400 people who have been surveyed in detail by Newspoll about their attitudes.

These
perceptions will be compared with their views after they have spent a
weekend at Old Parliament House listening to a wide range of experts
and religious leaders and discussing the issues among themselves.

Cardinal
Pell will join other prominent people such as Melbourne Muslim cleric
Mohammed Omran, London bomb survivor Gillian Hicks and Catch the Fire
Ministries pastor Daniel Scot - who won a court appeal against a
finding that he vilified Islam.

A report on the discussions and
findings will go to governments and non-government agencies as a
contribution to policy-making in areas such as immigration, education
and employment.

The concept of the deliberative poll was
developed in the US and this is the third conducted in Australia by
Issues Deliberation Australia, an independent, non-profit public policy
think-tank headed by psychologist Pamela Ryan. The earlier topics were
the republic and reconciliation. Sponsors for an exercise with a total
cost approaching $500,000 are the Myer Foundation, The Australian,
Qantas and the National Australia Bank.

Explaining the move, Australian
editor, Chris Mitchell said "I think Australians generally have a right
to know what is being said in places of worship, whether by Catholic or
Muslim clerics".

"One of the good things about reporting the
'raw meat' speech is that it brought a lot of mainstream Muslim people
out and showed mainstream Australians that many Muslims think exactly
like them."